Good afternoon. This is Emilio Casalicchio.

WEDNESDAY CHEAT SHEET

— David Lammy and Kemi Badenoch went head to head on seizing the news agenda. Kemi won with a reflective migration speech.

— The foreign secretary told MPs he has no “discretion” about enforcing the international arrest warrant for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

— The government has got itself into a proper pickle about whether it could raise taxes again during the current parliament.

— Badenoch is now into governing via petition. She wasn’t in the past.

— Labour MPs are at war over the bid to wreck the assisted dying bill.

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TOP OF THE NEWSLIST

TWO WORLDS ACROSS WESTMINSTER: Labour and the Conservatives took strikingly divergent paths this afternoon as the government focused on foreign affairs while the opposition punched a few domestic bruises.

First things first: Seeing as Foreign Secretary David Lammy has so far avoided making major news during his appearance at the foreign affairs committee (ongoing as PM hits inboxes) … Tory leader Kemi Badenoch gets first dibs. 

The Big Speech: Badenoch stood alongside Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp for a big (and interesting) speech about immigration — promising a proper review of the Conservative approach and admitting the Tories failed to deliver … while also making extra news lines.

For example: Badenoch said quitting the ECHR was “not even the most radical thing we’re probably going to have to do” to fix the U.K. immigration regime. 

But let’s go back to the start: “Immigration is at a pace too fast to maintain public services, and at a rate, where it is next to impossible to integrate those from radically different cultures,” Badenoch told the audience in Westminster. She said integration is vital for Britain whether people are pro immigration or not, and that politicians have been too scared to tackle the issue and fallen back on the simplistic argument that immigration is good for growth. 

Blame us: “Yes, some of these problems are long-standing — this is a collective failure of political leaders from all parties over decades — but on behalf of the Conservative Party it is right that I as the new leader accept responsibility, and say truthfully we got this wrong.”

The solution is … we’ll think about it: Badenoch said the Conservative review will include “every policy, treaty and part of our legal framework — including the ECHR and the Human Rights Act” and will end up with a numerical immigration cap. Watch the full speech at the CPS think tank here.

Thinking face emoji: A Labour aide noted how Badenoch said during the leadership campaign that tackling immigration is “it is not just about throwing out numbers and throwing out targets.” The person added: “Now she says she wants a cap?!”

Interesting side-points: Badenoch pitched her case to young people (traditionally more pro-immigration in Britain) — noting their trouble getting on the housing ladder. She said she is an engineer not a lawyer so likes to fix things rather than talk. There’s no doubt she left the politician-speak at home. “This country is not a dormitory or a hotel, it is our home,” she said.

The Labour line: Border Security Minister Angela Eagle said: “It’s welcome the Tories finally accept that immigration spiraled out of control on their watch. But Kemi Badenoch offers no new ideas or alternative to her party’s failed policies of the past.”

Meanwhile, across Westminster: Lammy sat for a lengthy foreign affairs committee hearing in parliament where he danced around numerous issues and offered delicate answers to questions about the simmering tensions around the world.

On the topic of the moment … Lammy said he did not want to send extra peacekeeping troops to Lebanon without checking with his global pals — following the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah. “I’m happy to look again at our uniformed contributions but I would want to do that in discussions with our G7 partners,” he said. “I don’t want to commit troops just off the cuff.”

The one real news line the committee got out of him … Lammy told the committee he would indeed comply with the International Criminal Court request to arrest Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu — although he insisted he had no choice. Lammy said British law states he has an “obligation” to “transmit” the warrant request to the U.K. court, adding: “That doesn’t allow me any discretion. I will issue that, transmit that to the courts. Then the courts will make that determination.”

Meanwhile: The foreign sec also said he would continue to talk to Bibi about Middle East issues. “I can’t see circumstances under which I would not ben speaking to the elected representatives of the Israeli government,” he said.

Also at the same time … Laila Soueif, mother of British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who remains imprisoned in Egypt, held a press conference this afternoon after meeting Lammy. She’s on her 59th day of her hunger strike, and told the Mail’s Kumail Jaffer about the foreign secretary: “He’s got the message that this issue cannot be kicked into the long grass.”

On an unrelated note … the Campaign Against Arms Trade this morning revealed the U.K. has licensed £237 million worth of arms to Egypt since Alaa Abd el-Fattah was detained in 2019 — including the largest single arms license to Egypt on record (for military radars worth £79,347,022) in December 2023.

TAX-PLAYERS ALLIANCE

TAX RETURNED: The government has got itself into a proper pickle about whether it will raise taxes again during the current parliament, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves won headlines telling businesses she wouldn’t at the start of the week. At PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch asked Keir Starmer if he would echo the pledge … and he swerved it. Clip here.

Err … too late, pal: “I’m not going to write the next five years of budgets here at this despatch box,” Starmer shot back, despite Reeves doing just that when it comes to tax and borrowing at the CBI conference on Monday. Badenoch said his protestations were “as worthless as the chancellor’s pledge.”

Reminder: “Public services now need to live within their means because I’m really clear, I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes,” Reeves told bosses just a couple of days ago. Asked about the issue during an ITV interview this morning, she said instead: “I’m not going to write five years’ worth of budgets in the first few months as chancellor of the exchequer, but what I can now say is that we have wiped the slate clean on the economic and fiscal mismanagement of the previous government.”

On a roll … oh: Badenoch could have continued punching the same bruise, but instead urged Starmer to resign, with reference to the petition that’s been doing the rounds among right-wing Twitter in recent weeks. Clip here. Is the leader of the opposition a little bit too online? Starmer said the Tories were “hurtling” to becoming a party of protest.

It’s also funny because … Badenoch said “we run the country based on elections and not petitions” over a petition to remain in the EU in 2019. See it here.

Or maybe she’s not online enough: Badenoch also claimed there were no tractors lining up in Westminster after the Conservative budget last March — unlike those last week complaining about the Reeves agricultural inheritance tax changes. Labour aides begged to differ, sending around this link.

And there’s more: Badenoch also attacked Starmer over electric vehicle mandates and the possible impact on jobs in the car manufacturing sector — after Vauxhall this week said the incoming rules were a factor in its decision to close down in Luton. The PM pointed out it was the Tories who introduced the mandates. Full PMQs scorecard from our Matt Honeycombe-Foster here.

Going back to Reeves for a sec: She swerved questions about whether she embellished her CV when ITV caught up with her this morning. Clip here.

DRIVETIME DEBRIEF

KILLING EACH OTHER: There are frustrations simmering on the Labour benches toward the Labour MP who signed the wrecking amendment to the assisted dying bill then told Playbook this morning they regretted putting their name to it. There’s also anger aimed the way of the MP who said the bid to kill the bill was about procedure rather opposition to its objective.

Playbook is the chamber: “MPs who say they support assisted dying in principle but will vote down this Bill on procedural grounds need to explain to the British public what their alternative procedure is and most important when it will start,” another Labour MP griped to Playbook PM.

Radio 4 is also the chamber: Amendment signatory and Labour MP Anna Dixon was making her case on the Today programme this morning, while bill presenter Kim Leadbeater was batting off the critics, here and here.

FLOOD OF NEWS: Environment Secretary Steve Reed said he would “push for” more cash from the Treasury for flood defenses — but my POLITICO colleague Charlie Cooper reveals his department actually ditched a longstanding funding target to protect against flooding. Writeup for POLITICO energy pro subscribers here.

Speaking of Charlie … he also texts in to say that the Brazilians have invited Keir Starmer for a state visit during 2025. Return to Rio?

AND YOU THOUGHT THE ENGLISH NHS SUCKED? Scottish hospital services are even further behind pre-pandemic levels than their English counterparts — and getting still worse, according to the non-partisan Institute for Fiscal Studies.

IT’S POINTLESS BEING AN MP LATEST: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage scuttled off to present his GB News show last night instead of voting on the cigarette banning bill he’s super passionate about, “because it’s going pass with a [large] majority … and I think I’m better off here debating national issues,” he told his viewers.

Under which reasoning … there’s little point a minor party MP ever voting in the Commons under its current arithmetic. So much for getting in on the eighth attempt.

To be fair … GB News is stumping up far, far more than the taxpayer for Nige to do his MP job and [checks notes] vote on legislation. So it all stands to reason. In fact, the Mirror’s Dave Burke points out on Bluesky that Farage has voted just 16 times out of the 48 divisions since he became an MP — and fewer than other party leaders, despite his claims. Reform didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Trolling: “Gutted,” tweeted Health Secretary Wes Streeting. “I thought he’d abstained because I’d won him over with my appeal to the libertarian right that there is no freedom in addiction — only higher costs to the individual and higher taxes for the general public.”

ALSO TROLLING? “A peer who has repeatedly echoed Kremlin talking points in the House of Lords has joined a new parliamentary group formed to fight ‘disinformation in the public discourse’,” write Nina Kuryata and Cat Neilan for Tortoise, in the latest revelation from the site’s Peer Review tool.

ON A TIGHT LEASE: It’s Labour MPs keeping Keir Starmer’s feet to the fire on the leasehold issue, with Milton Keynes North MP Chris Curtis bringing it up this week at PMQs and Earley and Woodley MP Yuan Yang doing the same last week when Angela Rayner was in the hotseat. Labour MPs have also been doing identikit photoshoots with the relevant minister, Matthew Pennycook, to show constituents the pressure is on. For example here, here and here.

Declaration of interests: As regularly noted here, Playbook PM is a leaseholder — albeit one grappling with the ineptitude of Lambeth Council rather than an actively abusive private freeholder.

JUST THE LOCAL MP: Keir Starmer described AI as the “opportunity of this generation,” as he chatted to sixth formers at the opening of Google’s new London AI campus this afternoon. The building, in Somers Town, a hop from Google’s King’s Cross HQ, aims to expand opportunities for local students pursuing AI careers. He described the partnership between Google, Camden Council and Camden Learning as a “seismic” moment.

PAPPED: Angela Rayner meeting the Pope in the Vatican this morning.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO TALK ABOUT: The removal of a “local connection” requirement for veterans getting housing support — making it easier to help our heroes.

SOCIAL (MEDIA) AFFAIRS

STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF: This Ed Davey TikTok thing is getting out of hand.

IF ONLY THIS WERE REAL: A fake screenshot of a petition to stop killing fish for their fingers was getting good traction on Twitter.

AROUND THE WORLD

IN STRASBOURG: EU lawmakers approved European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s team for her second term after a months-long process that began with June’s European election. My European colleagues have all you need to know.

IN IRELAND: Does anybody really want to win Ireland’s election? The strange answer, with the nation poised to go to the polls Friday, seems to be an exhausted no. Read ace colleague Shawn Pogatchnik’s latest missive from the campaign trail here.

IN LEBANON: The BBC has been reporting on families returning to their homes in Lebanon after the introduction of the ceasefire with Israel. In Dahieh, south Beirut, piles of rubble replace what was once buildings, towns, and villages.

IN MEXICO: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told a press conference that U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump’s proposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada would spike inflation and cause job losses in both countries. “What sense is there?” Sheinbaum asked. Reuters has more. 

IN AMERICA: The Biden administration brokered the release of three Americans — Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung — by trading them for unidentified Chinese citizens in U.S. custody, my U.S. colleagues report. Read the story here. 

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TONIGHT’S MEDIA ROUND

LEADING THE NEWS BULLETINS: Channel 5 News (5 p.m.) focuses on dental care … Channel 4 News (7 p.m.) leads on the Israel-Lebanon peace deal.

Tom Swarbrick at Drive (LBC, until 6 p.m.): Unite the Union’s Steve O’Donnell … Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s Colin Walker.

Drive with John Pienaar (Times Radio, 5 p.m.): Former Middle East negotiator for the U.S. Aaron David Miller … former Solicitor General Robert Courts … mother of political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Laila Soueif … Former U.K. ambassador to Ukraine Leigh Turner … Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. 

News Hour (Sky News, 5 p.m.): Former Israeli peace negotiator Yossi Beilin … former U.S. Middle East advisor Jasmine El Gamal.

Sky News Daily (Podcast, drops at 5 p.m.): Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk.

Tonight With Andrew Marr (LBC, 6 p.m.): Lisa Nandy … ‘For Women Scotland’ Co-Director Susan Smith.

Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (Sky News, 7 p.m.): Former Tory SpAd Salma Shah … Labour MP Jake Richards … Lisa Nandy … Former MI6 boss Richard Dearlove.

Peston (9 p.m. on Twitter, 10.45 p.m. on ITV): Lisa Nandy … Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis … broadcaster and environmentalist Chris Packham … Lib Dem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper … former Tory MP Simon Clarke.

TWEETING TOMORROW’S PAPERS TONIGHT: Allie Hodgkins-Brown.

REVIEWING THE PAPERS TONIGHT: Times Radio (10.30 p.m.): Talk’s Peter Cardwell and the i’s Jane Merrick … Sky News (10.30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m.): Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire and Daily Mail’s Claire Ellicott.

WHERE TO FIND BOOZE IN WESTMINSTER TONIGHT

AI AI, CAPTAIN: Demos is chatting all things AI in the public sector with Labour MP Dan Aldridge at 5.15 p.m. (more here.)

ALI-GILLI: Podcast bro Alastair Campbell and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard are in conversation at King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at 6.30 p.m. (details here.)

GOOD LORD: Bright Blue is hosting a discussion on House of Lords reform with Conservative MP Simon Hoare, Labour MP Fabian Hamilton and Plaid Cymru peer Carmen Ria Smith at 6.30 p.m. (tickets here.)

TOMORROW’S WORLD

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO TALK ABOUT: Deep fake detection and work visa abuse.

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT: The latest immigration stats, including the refuge request waiting list, are out at 9.30 a.m. here.

IN THE COMMONS: Culture, media and sport questions kick things off at 9.30 a.m. before the business statement, then debates on Taiwan and Pakistan.

GUESS WHO’S BACK: Former Cabinet minister and now Spectator Editor Michael Gove is up at the Lords constitution committee from 10.15 a.m.

IN THE LORDS: The bill to return rail contracts to the public sector becomes law at 11 a.m., before questions kick off on BBC impartiality, alleged politicization of the civil service and more.

NOT CLASHING WITH HIS GB NEWS SHOW: Reform leader Nigel Farage and co are holding a press conference to make a “special announcement” about the movement from 11.30 a.m.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

PACKED LUNCH OR PALACE LUNCH: Subject to change, here are the lunch menus on the estate tomorrow: Bellamy’s: Baked pakora cod with cucumber raita; soya ‘meatball’ tagine with apricot, sultana, and cracked wheat; lemon turkey escalope with cannellini bean and broccoli hummus on a sourdough croute … The Debate: Eggplant and butterbean ragu with red quinoa, crumbed feta and pomegranate; soy and honey roast belly of pork with egg fried rice, chilli and spring onions; baked Malaysian lemongrass and ginger salmon with peanut satay vegetables and noodles … Terrace Cafeteria: Turkey escalope with pasta Milanese; baked sea bream with quinoa, salsa verde, and zucchini; onion and pea samosa with chana dal, baby spinach and tomato salad, poppadum and mango chutney … River Restaurant: Veggie burger with pesto mayonnaise, fries and coleslaw; grilled Kin la Belle chicken with okra sauce, eggplant, mixed vegetable goma rice and cassava chips; soy, sesame and mirin salmon skewers with chilli noodles and pak choy salad.

MEA CULPA: The administration committee covers the Commons — not the entire Palace of Westminster as Playbook PM wrote last night.

SPOTTED: The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey in the Commons public gallery during PMQs — and getting told off for clapping when SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn tore into Keir Starmer.

NEW GIG: Conservative peer William Hague was elected new chancellor of Oxford Uni, beating both Labour rival Peter Mandelson and one-Conservative Dominic Grieve. The Sun’s Harry Cole got the full results. It’s well worth reading back over the Mason Boycott-Owen piece from last week about what it could all mean for China. Yep, that’s a factor here, bonkers as it might sound.

POSSIBLE NEW GIG: Former Gordon Brown comms chief Michael Ellam could become the new “EU sherpa” leading U.K. reset talks with Brussels for up to £200,000, according to the FT. A letter from David Lammy published this afternoon revealed some 50 civil servants are meanwhile working on the EU reset — having moved over to the Cabinet Office from the Foreign Office earlier this month. Playbook PM hears there’s been hot-desking and frustrations because the Cabinet Office uses Google services like online documents while the FCDO uses Microsoft.

SO LONG, FAREWELL: The excellent Mishal Husain is leaving the BBC for a new gig at Bloomberg. Big loss for the Beeb, but a happy day for Bloomberg.

EVERYONE’S A NEWSLETTER WRITER NOW: Chair of the GMB Union parliamentary staffers group Jenny Symmons started a fortnightly newsletter to staff through the House mag — first issue of “The Staff Room” out this morning.

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Outoing CBI comms chief (and incoming Good Growth Foundation comms chief) Theresa Bischof writes in City AM about how the government can incentivize and support companies to improve the mental health of their staff. She notes complaints about corporate mental health box ticking, plus the bad managers who do more to damage the mental health of their staff than HR support can ever alleviate.

ON THIS DAY IN POLITICS: On Nov. 27 1295 King Edward I called what became known as the “model parliament” — a major precursor to our current parliamentary system. On the same date in 1967 French President Charles de Gaulle said “Non!” to British entry to the European Common Market for the second time.

WRITING PLAYBOOK TOMORROW MORNING: Sam Blewett.

THANKS TO: My editor Matt Honeycombe-Foster, reporter Bethany Dawson and the POLITICO production team for making it look nice.

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